Most commercially available presumptive chemical and biological agents test devices and available IP and literature, use and describe methods which contain hazardous materials and sophisticated packaging which are not suitable for extremely cheap mass production in simple factory settings.
These test kits suffer from a variety of manufacture and end use problems, including but not limited to: (i) kit construction requires liquid dropper bottles, breakable glass or plastic ampoules, blister packs and pressurized aerosol spray cans filled with hazardous liquid reagents; (ii) the presence of hazardous liquid reagents poses problems with manufacturing and exposure limitations, storage and handling, strict packaging requirements and significant shipping restrictions; (iii) the volume or quantity of liquid reagent consumed during one single test is excessive and wasteful adding to costly, bulky and often overly complicated device construction design and packaging; (iv) during use, operators may be exposed to sharps and hazardous liquid reagent splash or overspray; (v) most prior art devices require multi-step operations in order to complete a single test; and (vi) none of the prior art kits and devices achieve the bench mark of true low cost mass manufacturing, which would be considered in the range of tens of millions of individual units per annum, with a commercial shelf life span of 2 to 3 years.
Impregnation of bibulous carriers with reagent solutions is an incredibly inefficient and costly method of presumptive test kit manufacture. Ultimately, the solvents used to dissolve the powdered reagents must be removed by evaporation. Often the solvents will be aqueous based and acidic in nature, which makes removal from the bibulous carrier hazardous, very costly, and will require very sophisticated laboratory equipment to minimize exposure and corrosion of the surrounds. In the event that the bibulous carrier can be dried, it must still be cut and presented in a kit format for ease of use. Often, this will incorporate plastic injection molded housings, which are magnitudes of order more expensive than paper based supports. Additionally, the cost of the injection die is excessive. The alternative low cost paper based solid support carrier option for a presumptive kit is often not possible, as the loaded bibulous carrier strips resist sticking and adhering to common pressure sensitive adhesives because of interaction with the impregnated reagent(s) and/or the pressure sensitive adhesives react with the impregnated reagent(s), destroying the kits.